Nationalised lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) today announced it returned to profit in the first half. The bank posted a pre-tax profit of £896 million for the six months to the end of June, after posing a loss of £160 million in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, operating costs fell from £65 million [...]
An independent valuer has said former shareholders of crisis-torn Bradford & Bingley (B&B) will not receive any compensation after it was split and sold. At the height of the financial crisis, B&B’s loan book was nationalised, while Spanish banking giant Santander took ownership of its savings business and branch network. B&B’s shares closed at 20p [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander is to begin its integration of UK High Street banks - Abbey and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). Santander, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion, back in 2004. In July 2008, it [...]
Mortgage borrowers with Santander will soon be able to take advantage of a bank current account that attaches no fees to overdrafts, whether authorised or unauthorised. The Spanish banking giant is launching a “Zero” current account on 11th January 2010 to coincide with its rebranding of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester to [...]
Nationalised Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is reportedly considering splitting itself into two in order to raise money to repay its £18.4 billion loan from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The troubled buy-to-let lender was nationalised over a year ago to prevent it from collapse which led to Spanish bank, Santander, acquiring B&B’s £20 billion [...]
Bradford & Bingley (B&B) has launched a new online Notice Saver account paying interest at a variable rate of 3.3% gross/AER. New and existing B&B customers can open the account with a minimum balance of just £1. The account includes an instant access option for savers who need to withdraw their money. Account holders can [...]
Bradford & Bingley has launched a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying 4.35% interest. The bond requires a minimum deposit of £10,000, and no withdrawals are permitted during the life of the bond. Savers looking to take advantage of the bond must have internet access as it is only available online. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings [...]
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and Bradford & Bingley have announced the launch of a new two-year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.2%. Savers can open the bond with an investment of between £10,000 and £2 million. Any withdrawals incur a penalty of 120 days interest. The bonds can be opened by visiting any branch of [...]
In a move which will cost £12 million, Santander is to re-name its UK High Street banks: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B). According to Santander, the move is aimed at saving £180 million from integrating the three banks. The move would also allow the UK business to use the “expertise [...]
Santander’s UK banks have launched a new two year fixed-rate bond paying interest at 4.01% gross p.a./AER. Minimum deposit is £30,000, and maximum deposit is £2 million. The bond is available in store from branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester. Reza Attar-Zadeh, director of savings and investments at Santander UK, said [...]
Santander-owned Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has launched a new individual savings account (ISA) designed to attract customers who may have been put off saving by the current climate of low interest rates. The one-year fixed rate bond ISA pays interest at 3.00% tax free, with the account maturing on 1 May 2010. Minimum deposit is [...]
Lord Turner, the Financial Service Authority’s chairman, has said that as a result of increased regulatory control consumers are likely to face higher mortgage rates as costs are passed on. The FSA is now considering a number of new measures in order to avert any future banking crisis. The primary consideration is looking to increase [...]
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics today have revealed that national debt could be pushed up by as much as £1.5 trillion, following the bailouts of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds TSB. Billions of pounds were injected into the two banks last autumn to prevent them from collapse. Furthermore, both Northern [...]
Spanish bank, Santander, has raised eyebrows today by announcing a €7.2 billion (£5.9 billion) rights issue. The bank, which recently acquired Alliance & Leicester, said the heavily discounted rights issue will allow it to strengthen its capital and provide an investment opportunity for its shareholders. However, just last week the bank insisted it had no [...]
High Street bank Abbey, which is owned by Santander, has announced a rise of 70% in new deposits as consumers look for a secure place to deposit their savings. During the first nine months of the year, Abbey said it took £4.3 billion in deposits, compared with £2.5 billion during the same period in 2007. [...]
A crisis might be a time for action rather than questions but with the scale of the problems facing the UK banking sector escalating, one particular question regularly bubbles to the surface. Is Grupo Santander any more likely to emerge from the credit crisis in sound shape than some of its failing European rivals? Santander [...]
The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley is the most blatant case of legalised bank robbery this country has ever seen, with almost a million shareholders likely to lose a fortune. The whole point of having shareholders in a democracy is that they own the company and can decide its fate between them, including sacking the [...]
The BBC reported over the weekend that troubled buy-to-let lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) was set to be nationalised. It has emerged this morning that Spanish bank, Santander, which recently agreed to buy Alliance & Leicester, is to acquire B&B’s £20 billion savings base and its network of 197 branches. According to sources, talks ran [...]
Troubled buy-to-let lender, Bradford & Bingley (B&B) is set to be nationalised, according to the BBC. Treasury officials and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have been holding talks with the lender in an attempt to secure its future. The bank is to be nationalised using special legislation the Treasury implemented after it took Northern Rock [...]
Troubled buy-to-let mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B) has announced its mortgage processing centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, is be closed with the loss of 370 jobs. The processing centre is to close in the first quarter of 2009. B&B, which is the UK’s biggest buy-to-let lender, blamed the continuing downturn in the market for mortgages. [...]
Asda flier promotes expensive cash withdrawals
The ‘Asda Price’ slogan took on a whole new meaning after a flier, designed to look like a Christmas card, suggested that Asda Money customers should withdraw cash from an ATM using their credit card. Customers withdrawing cash on their credit card are charged 3 per cent of the amount withdrawn, or £5, whichever is [...]
The cost of car insurance fell by 6.6 per cent this month, compared with a year ago, according to Tiger Watch, the car insurance price monitor produced by Tiger.co.uk. Compared with November, prices increased by 0.4 per cent, but across a three month period, prices have fallen to a two-year low. Competition between insurance providers [...]
Chancellor open-minded about ending inflation target
Chancellor George Osborne has welcomed remarks made by the incoming Governor of the Bank of England about scrapping the inflation target to focus on gross domestic product (GDP). Such a change in strategy would require the Bank of England to introduce new measure to stimulate the economy, even if this caused inflation to rise. Mark [...]
Shepshed Building Society joins with The Nottingham
The Nottingham and Shepshed building societies will merge in July 2013, with Shepshed’s three branches being rebranded under The Nottingham name. Shepshed Building Society, which has branches in Shepshed and Loughborough, Leicestershire; and Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, has struggled to grow in the face of economic downturn and increased competition, prompting it to seek a merger. It [...]
Moneyfacts reports fall in number of savings accounts
The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), launched by the Bank of England and the Treasury this summer, has caused a sharp fall in the number of accounts available for savers, according to Moneyfacts, a leading provider of personal finance data. FLS is designed to increase the availability of mortgages and business loans by providing banks [...]
Large deposits still challenging first-time buyers
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is forecasting a positive year in 2013 for the UK property market, but first-time buyers are still struggling to find the large deposits required by mortgage lenders. The CML has recorded a steady increase in mortgage lending with 49,500 home loans advanced for house purchases in October. This represents [...]
HSBC fined $1.92 billion by US authorities
HSBC has received a record $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) fine from US federal and state authorities after its poor money laundering controls allowed it to be used as a conduit for drug barons and nations on which sanctions had been imposed, including Iran. Following a multi-agency investigation HSBC was charged with violating sanctions by transferring [...]
Northern Rock customers to receive windfall
Northern Rock customers could receive a windfall of around £1,700 because of an error in the wording of loan statements. The mistake, made by the nationalised part of the bank, will cost UK taxpayers a total of £270 million. Up to 152,000 customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an [...]
Government acts to curb whiplash epidemic
Medical panels could be introduced to assess car drivers and passengers making an insurance claim for a whiplash injury following an accident. The number of personal injury claims relating to road accidents has soared by 60 per cent since 2006, despite a 20 per cent fall in road traffic accidents and the government is to [...]
Insurers warn householders to keep Christmas gifts secure
With UK households expected to spend around £8.5 billion on Christmas presents this year, according to a survey by Tesco Bank, insurers are warning consumers to keep their gifts secure. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that insurers received £35m of claims for the 23,000 burglaries which took place in December last year. Shoppers [...]
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